Knight Riders Lift IPL Trophy for First Time

Chennai: Manvinder Sultansingh Bisla justified his late inclusion with a brilliant knock of 89 that carried Kolkata Knight Riders to a memorable five-wicket victory against Chennai Super Kings for their maiden trophy success in the Indian Premier League here Sunday.

The Super Kings, champions in the previous two seasons, looked to be in command when they posted 190 for three after batting first on winning the toss, and then dismissing Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir in the very first over.

But Bisla (89 of 49 balls) and veteran Jacques Kallis (69 off 49) put together a match-winning partnership of 136 runs to set up a deserving victory in the final over when Manoj Tiwary smashed two consecutive boundaries off Dwayne Bravo for the winning runs.

Kolkata's success was even more creditable considering they had to reshuffle their line-up in the wake of injury to seamer Lakshmipathy Balaji. They brought in Bisla while dropping opener Brendon McCullum and replacing the Kiwi big-hitter with all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.

In contrast, the Super Kings appeared a settled unit and after their top order batsmen - openers Michael Hussey (54) and Murali Vijay (42) and then Suresh Raina (73) - firing in unison, looked set to win the final until the onslaught by Bisla and Kallis who both batted out of their skins to guide their team to victory.

The Knight Riders went home richer by $2 million in prize money and the Super Kings received $1.5million as the runners-up.

Bisla was a revelation as he has had a very ordinary season with the bat, but on the big night, he stepped up to play a gem of a knock that took Knight Riders close to victory.

With Kallis proving to be an able foil, Bisla grew in stature. However, Bisla fell in the 15th over, just 11 short of a century. Thereafter, the Knight Riders lost a couple of wickets leaving them to get 20 runs off the last two overs.

Kallis departed in the 19th when he smashed a full-toss off Hilfenhaus to Ravindra Jadeja, but a lucky boundary off the last ball of that over left Kolkata to get nine off the last over bowled by Bravo with Shakib Al Hasan and Manoj Tiwary at the crease.

Tiwary swung the third ball to the square-leg fence and the Knight Riders needed three off the last three deliveries. He again pulled the next ball to the boundary for the winning runs and set off celebrations in the Knight Riders camp.